Four Food Regulation Perspectives

Tim Urban is on the podcast circuit after publication of his most recent book. On the Making Sense podcast he called politics a “trashy reality show.” As with every other topic, everyone is pointing the finger somewhere else. (Also see his takes on the Honestly podcast.)

Here Urban comments on whose fault it is that in general we take the easy out and fail to solve long-standing problems.

The thing is, if you ask the governments, they think it's the people. They'll say, “Oh well, if I tried to do that, I'd have this uproar....people want their convenience.” I think both are true: I think that the politicians sometimes lack the nerve to do the right thing, the good long term solution, or even to propose it, and it's also the fault of the people for just taking the easy way so much of the time. (32:14)

Among other topics, he is interested in food regulations. Here some of his comments from the Making Sense podcast are fit into two of the quadrants.

Food Production and Safety Issues According to the Quadrants

The end. Thanks for reading.

For Verbal Repeat of Quadrants Text to Accommodate Assistive Technology Readers

This section repeats the writing in the quadrants, for any who have difficulty reading in that format, and because as an image it won’t be verbally read by assistive technology. What’s the benefit of the quadrant format anyway? It’s a heuristic that can stick in the visual memory.

Blue Quadrant

Democrat view (government-regulation-friendly):

This is the quadrant accused of “cover-your-butt safety-ism.” Tim Urban says people want to sue you or get you fired if they get salmonella cuz they’re sickly and never get out for a walk. In other words, they see it as a public protection issue promoted by “people who want the government to be parental,” not a matter of individual responsibility. It’s a prevention-oriented response.

Red Quadrant

Republican view (business-friendly view and justice-orientation):

This quadrant’s approach would be a prevention-oriented resolution that relied not on regulation but on lawsuits that punish those found to have sold contaminated or unfit products. Alternatively, this quadrant would propose a cure or symptom alleviation based on market-related drugs and health care services.

Yellow Quadrant

Libertarian view (freedom-promoting):

Tim Urban complains that “the government is…allowing these gatekeepers in health and safety.…prevent you from selling the side of beef to your neighbors, yeah, and killing all your chickens because they supposedly might, they gave you this test.” He is referring to culling, as mentioned in the CDC record “tested positive for avian influenza A(H5) virus (H5 bird flu) in the U.S., as reported by Colorado and confirmed by CDC. This case occurred in a person who had direct exposure to poultry and was involved in the culling (depopulating) of poultry with presumptive H5N1 bird flu” (CDC, 2022, para. 1).

Green Quadrant

Greens view (social-justice-promoting):

The green resolution to food safety would be to tell the CDC your chickens are pets, not laying hens, as you are obviously vegan and not enslaving sentient creatures for your own profit. Also, your goats are kept for renting out to clear weeds because obviously you would not use toxic chemicals to control weeds. Many such chemicals are endocrine disruptors that are decreasing the fertility of wildlife and humans (Gasnier et al., 2009). Also, you could never make any money on the milk, with all the restrictions in place that make sales unprofitable for the small farmers if they were to meet all the legal requirements. If any products happen to be given to a neighbor, that’s simply the gift economy, not even taxable as barter, because we’re collectivist and make sure our friends are fed with hormone-free cruelty-free hunting, fishing, and farming.

References

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2022). U.S. case of human avian influenza A(H5) virus reported. https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2022/s0428-avian-flu.html

Gasnier, C., Dumont, C., Benachour, N., Clair, E., Chagnon, M. C., & Séralini, G. E. (2009). Glyphosate-based herbicides are toxic and endocrine disruptors in human cell lines. Toxicology, 262(3), 184-91. doi:10.1016/j.tox.2009.06.006